Jackie Cooper's Traumatic Experience on Set of 'Skippy' Involved Threats to His Dog
How Norman Taurog's threats forced young actor to cry.
Jackie Cooper faced a distressing challenge while filming a particular scene in Skippy. He was unable to make himself cry on cue, and the director, Norman Taurog — who was also Cooper’s uncle — threatened to have Cooper’s dog killed if he couldn’t produce tears. Cooper later recounted in his autobiography that the entire incident was deeply traumatising for him.
He described how he visualised his dog, bloodied from the scene, and began sobbing hysterically, feeling overwhelmed by the emotional strain. Cooper recalled that Taurog had to calm him down by suggesting that perhaps his dog had survived the shot and that if he hurried and managed to complete the scene as directed, they could then check whether his dog was still alive.
This harrowing experience highlights the intense pressures actors sometimes face during filming, especially when personal emotions are exploited to achieve a convincing performance. For Cooper, it left a lasting impression of the emotional toll that filmmaking can exact on performers, particularly when family members are involved behind the camera.
Despite the trauma, Cooper’s performance remained memorable, and his honesty about this incident sheds light on the darker side of Hollywood’s early days — where sometimes fear and manipulation were used to elicit a desired reaction from young actors.
